While a social media manager may not be selling out stadiums on a world tour, there are plenty of ways they can still be a rock star at their job and skip the mess of trashing hotel rooms. Given that 92% of all marketers agree that social media is important to their business, there’s no doubt learning what makes a talented, rock star-like social media manager is key to growing your business.
Come to think of it, successfully managing a social media community actually does have a number of similarities with playing a massive concert: you must have a commanding presence that focuses the attention of a huge, potentially distracted, audience to the stage, and maintain engagement and interest for an extended period of time with a riveting performance. And you can’t just keep playing the same note the whole time either, you’ve got to listen and respond to your audience and vary your tune to keep fans interested and screaming (or at least clicking) for more.
So, now that we see how much of a rock star a social media manager can be, let’s look at the qualities that can help you sell out stadiums, or rather, build great brands, generate traffic and drive conversions.
1. Know Your Audience and Listen To Them
You wouldn’t get up on stage and start crooning country ballads to a room full of metalheads, right? Equally so, when it comes to managing social media communities, you need to understand who you’re targeting and get to know what they want.
A true rock star learns to listen, engage and converse with their audience. Get specific about the types of people you think would be most interested in what your company has to offer and learn as much as you can about them. This will help you create content and connect with them through a one-of-a-kind experience. Elicit responses and engage your audience by asking questions, but also be willing to answer questions your customers may have on social media as well.
2. Bring People To Your Site Through Social Media
It may seem obvious, but sometimes in the race for “likes” and followers, the goal of attracting customers to your business can get sidelined. You want to capture their attention, but you also want to gain their trust by building a relationship with them through social media over time. Keep them updated on your company and communicate with them regularly.
Build those relationships and draw people in by becoming more of a brand storyteller than a number counter. Use social mentions to share success stories of how actual customers use your products and services. How can your company be more helpful and relevant to your customers, so that they want to engage more?
3. Be Flexible with Your Content Strategy and Get Creative
Just as a musician can only get so far with success if they only produce one album, you need to continually put out quality content over time. If you created your content strategy 6 months ago and stick steadfastly to it, chances are you’re going to miss out on what your audience is paying attention to right now. You want to revisit your content strategy frequently and be flexible about what and when you post.
While you want to pay attention to what current trends and news your audience might be responding to, you want to make sure that you aren’t just echoing what everyone else is saying on social media. Be sure to establish your brand’s distinctive and original voice with unique, creative content. These days, to be a rock star social media manager; you need to do more than just craft a clever tweet. It’s vital to learn to utilize graphic design as well to create compelling, shareable content, including infographics, photos and videos.
4. Give As Much As You Get
Keep in mind that being an excellent social media manager isn’t just about getting people to engage with your brand. You also want to make sure you’re connecting with the rest of the community, both your audience and other community managers, in order to give back to the common good. Customers can sense when a social media manager is only focused on promoting their brand and will be turned off by the egotism.
In the social media world it’s important to give back to the community to show that you’re interested in more than just the bottom line. There’s a variety of ways you can do this: share and promote what your customers have to say, give shout-outs and thanks when people mention you, connect with other social media managers to discover ways you can collaborate.
5. Know Your Metrics
Many people still have a hard time seeing how “building relationships” through social media can help contribute what they see as the more tangible sales numbers. That’s why it’s important to have numbers to back up your social media efforts and be able to show the inquiring mind just what the social media ROI looks like. By making links trackable, optimizing your content for conversion, and tracking web analytics, can help you to measure and track your progress. It can also go a long way to helping you refine and revise your social media strategy as you go along.
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Now it’s time for you to tune your instrument, step out on the stage and become the rock star social media manager you were born to be. Obviously, this process is not going to happen overnight, even the biggest stars take time to hone their skills and improve their craft. But by keeping these lessons in mind and continually refining your social media strategy, you’ll be on your way to rock stardom in no time.
What traits do you think of when you imagine a rock star social media manager? Let us know what’s worked well for you in the comment section below.
Sources
- “The New Skill Every Social Media Marketer Must Possess” (Convince and Convert)
- “26 Tips For Managing A Social Media Community” (Social Media Examiner)
- “8 Quick Ways You Can Become A Social Media Rock Star” (Social Media Today)
- “30 Social Media Metrics” (Raven Tools)
- “7 Steps To Becoming A Rock Star At Social Media Marketing” (Business To Community)
